Sermon Tone Analysis

Joshua V. Schneider

Preaching Workshop

Dr. Carl Fickenscher

2-10-06

 

!!!

The Man for Others

Matthew 27:38-44

*/38 /*/Then two robbers were crucified with him, one on the right and one on the left.

*39 *And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads *40 *and saying, “You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself!

If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.”

*41 *So also the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked him, saying, *42 *“He saved others; he cannot save himself.

He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him.

*43 *He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him.

For he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’ ” *44 *And the robbers who were crucified with him also reviled him in the same way.

(ESV)/

 

            Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen.

*(I.)*

A discordant song fills the air.

A chant, really, a litany of mockery and accusation—scorn.

Shouts and cries of hatred ring out in a painful cacophony, as the dying Christ hangs naked on a cross.

Humiliated, fighting for every breath.

No sympathy.

Words that sting like venom poured into gaping wounds.

The venom of the Evil One: Satan.

These mockers are giddy with rage as they see their victim groan.

“*You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself!*”

Nevermind that they were watching that temple being destroyed as they spoke—not knowing that the Temple He spoke of was His body.

“Surely you must want to save yourself?

Don’t you care to save your own skin?”

A second taunt rings with familiarity, but to none but Jesus’ ears.

“*If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross*.”

Jesus had heard those venomous words before: “*If you are the Son of God*.”

Satan spoke them while tempting Jesus in the wilderness.

“Have a care for yourself” he would say.

“Don’t starve for lack of bread when you’re the Son of God.

Perform a miracle!

Turn these stones into bread!”

Satan’s old challenge came back, this time from the mouths of those standing before Jesus’ cross.

Trying to turn Jesus away from His task.

They’re having too much fun.

Christ lies silent—bones and joints stretched out of place—every breath a painful effort.

The litany continues: “*He saved others, He cannot save Himself.*”

Can they really mock His power?

Have they no fear?

They had seen His miracles; what He had done for others.

But now they jeer at His apparent powerlessness.

“Why won’t He do for Himself what He did for others?

He must be too weak.”

He is weak indeed—weakened by whips and scourges and nails.

But powerless—He is not.

“*He is the King of Israel*,” they cry, “*let Him come down now from the cross, and we will believe Him*.”

What arrogance.

A blatant pretense.

Their promise that they will believe if Christ comes down from the cross is a sham.

They were always one step away from believing Him: “Just give us this sign!” *An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.

But even if someone rises from the dead, they will not believe.*

The litany ends with this taunt, “*He trusts in God, let God deliver Him now, if He desires Him.

For He said, ‘I am the Son of God*.’”

See how reckless unbelief is?

There is no fear of God.

How could they dare take the risk to crucify Jesus if He might really be who He says He is?

But they did not mean it.

They really didn’t want to see if God would deliver Him.

But despite all these taunts, His silence is remarkable.

Never does He lash back with sharp words.

He was able to silence His detractors with a single reproach before—but now He does not answer their cries.

“*He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and a like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth*.”

*(II.)*

When will it end??

Our blood boils to think of it all.

We are filled with indignation.

Until we realize that our sins and evil thoughts rose against Him in accusation too.

Not a pleasant thought.

We don’t want to admit it either.

Sure, its true we probably wouldn’t have been the one’s to hang Him, if we were there.

Not everyone was turned against Him.

But every sinful thought or word or accusation against God was known to Him, across all time—and He bore it all in the flesh.

He heard it all.

You’ve heard it before—perhaps your own heart has said it: “My sin is too great for God to forgive…How can God forgive me?”

This is to doubt God’s power to save.

It is to make our sin greater than Jesus’ cross.

Or we may cry to God, “I can’t help it that I sin, /You/ made me this way!”

People blame God for their fallenness, accusing Him for their sin.

Or what about those scoffers today, who would say, “If only God would work some miracle in my life—then I’d believe.”

Or whatever other pretense people give for not believing.

Christ sees the sham—it is not hidden from Him today, anymore than it was then.

But even moreso, our accusations fell on Jesus when He was declared guilty of every sin.

He was made sin for us.

As He died on the cross, the accusations for every sin fell upon Him.

He was the murderer, the adulterer, the thief.

Our greatest and smallest sins were all laid upon Him.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the Lutheran pastor whose 100th year we commemorate this year, knew this truth well.

He said,

The truthfulness Jesus demands of his disciples is self-denial that does not conceal            sin…Precisely because truthfulness is concerned first and last with uncovering human       beings in the entirety of their being, in their iniquity before God, it provokes the      opposition of sinners, and is thus persecuted and crucified.

The only basis of the      disciples’ truthfulness is that Jesus, while we follow him, reveals our sinfulness to us on    the cross.

The cross as God’s truth over us is the only thing that makes us truthful.

Whoever knows the cross no longer shies away from any other truth.

(Dietrich Bonhoeffer, /Meditations on the Cross/, 24)

Bonhoeffer recognized that the cross is the full exposure of our sin, in Christ’s flesh.

It’s too easy to conceal our sin by hiding under indignation at the mockers who stood at the cross.

The truth that our sin weighed on Him every bit as much as the sin of the mockers, provokes our opposition and anger.

But the cross uncovers our entire sinful being, and for us who believe in what Christ did on the cross, we do not shy away from the truth.